1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to parallel processor computer systems, and in particular, to the coordination of an application function divided into plurality of sub-tasks performed by a group of nodes of a parallel processor computer system.
2. Description of Related Art
Parallel processor computer systems are frequently comprised of an operating system and arrays of individual computers (i.e., processor nodes). Tasks are executed in parallel by utilizing each processor node.
During the execution of a task, a body of work is divided into multiple threads. A thread is a stream of instructions executed by the computer on behalf of a task. As an analogy, a task such as an orchestra performing a symphony can be decomposed into many threads which would be the individual musicians, each playing their part.
Typically, in a parallel processor computer system, each thread is allocated to a different processor node. Each of these threads is then executed in parallel at their respective separate nodes. For instance, three threads can occupy and execute simultaneously on three different nodes at the same time.
Although parallel processing has merits, there are shortcomings. Typically, in networked computer systems, there is a large amount of message traffic between processors. The viability of such loosely-coupled processors is strongly determined by the bandwidth of the network relative to the characteristics of the processors and their input/output subsystems.
In order to fully utilize a network's bandwidth and reduce latency, many vendors have devised optimized communications services. Nonetheless, there is still a need in the art for communications services that maximizes the performance of message traffic across a network.